Penance
by Diabolus-in-Harmonia
Summary: After an 'incident' between Ghetsis' Hydreigon and the local adorable wildlife, Alder tries to teach Ghetsis not to be horrible to other human beings. He is not successful. Hippocraticshipping, set after the events of BW2.


_Ugh_. The child would not stop its pathetic, irritating crying despite Alder's best efforts. Ghetsis honestly had no idea what the stupid little girl was sobbing about anyway – all it had witnessed was a mundane, natural occurrence. He folded his arms and rolled his eyes as Alder attempted to calm the girl and placate its angry mother, shifting around a little on his feet.

"…and I'm sure Ghetsis here will apologise for his Hydreigon. Right, Ghetsis?"

_Oh dear. _Ghetsis had chosen the wrong time to zone back in on that conversation. His eyes took in the scene before him – the sniffling brat wiping its eyes, its puny mother staring up at him, irked, and Alder staring at him with a half-expectant, half-pleading look. _No_. This was not happening.

"Apologise? For what?" Ghetsis snorted grumpily, looking away from Alder's stupid(precious) face, just in time to avoid seeing it fall.

"The poor girl is traumatised, Ghetsis. It's the least you can do to help," Alder sighed, knowing this was likely going to go nowhere. Ghetsis was intensely uncooperative when it came to dealing with others.

"_Traumatised_? Oh, boo-hoo, you saw my Hydreigon swoop down and eat a stupid little Cinccino. It's perfectly natural, and quite common. If anything, you should both be thanking me for injecting a piece of reality into your sheltered lives," Ghetsis said, delighting in the look of indignation on the mother's face(even if his delight was somewhat offset by Alder's exasperation and the brat beginning its ugly crying again). _Honestly_. It wasn't even the dumb kid's Cinccino. It had been entirely wild, and had probably provoked Hydreigon anyway.

"You should be keeping watch on that _thing_! At the very _least _you should keep the monster contained in its poké ball!" The woman snapped, pulling her _precious_ spawn a little closer to her(farther from Ghetsis). Ghetsis sneered at the word 'monster' – people liked insulting poor Hydreigon's intelligence with that word.

"Look, can't we all keep a level head about this? I'm sorry you guys had to see what you did – we'll make sure we keep a better eye on Hydreigon so it doesn't happen again," Alder said, ever the peacemaker. "_Right_, Ghetsis?"

"…Whatever," Ghetsis conceded, huffing and turning his back to the three of them as Alder knelt down to speak some more mushy words of comfort to the whiny brat. He considered treating Hydreigon tonight for bringing the child and its mother such a healthy amount of distress, as they were clearly abhorrent creatures(most people who weren't Alder turned out to be abhorrent, actually).

After what felt like _years_, the girl's tears finally subsided, and Ghetsis felt he could turn back to face his partner again as he heard the two whiny intruders leave the area. Unsurprisingly, Alder looked none too impressed.

"Ghetsis, what have I told you about being a bastard to literally everyone who crosses your path?" The ex-champion said, sighing and rubbing his temples. Ghetsis felt distinctly guilty, but was able to push that aside in favour of his lingering ire.

"I'm sorry, Alder, but they were being _ridiculous_," Ghetsis grumbled, feeling no remorse for upsetting the child and its mother.

"…Whilst I might agree with you a little, you could save everyone a lot of time and grief by being less of a dick all the time," Alder said sternly, frowning at him. _Damn it_. He was feeling rather bad about disappointing Alder already. Ghetsis sighed.

"…My apologies. It seems you're still the only person I care about offending or upsetting, and it may remain that way indefinitely," Ghetsis mumbled, looking abashed. He just couldn't find it within himself to care about anyone other than Alder(and Zinzolin, he supposed, but that was another matter entirely). Alder shook his head, unable to stop a smile from creeping up on him.

"You're lucky I love you, or we might have to have a more serious discussion about that issue of yours," Alder chuckled, ruffling Ghetsis' hair like he used to when they'd been younger(and Ghetsis had been notably shorter). He knew Ghetsis' chronic lack of empathy for other humans was probably a serious issue, but he couldn't help but forgive his friend when he insisted on being so uncharacteristically…sweet.

"Don't you patronise me," Ghetsis said as he batted Alder's arm away from his perfect hair, feigning seriousness. He pointedly ignored how those three accursed mushy words never failed to bring a dumb smile to his face when Alder said them. Ghetsis could practically see Alder formulating some smartass comment to come back at him with, and cut him off pre-emptively. "Come on, let us just go home before anyone else decides they have a problem with me."

"Certainly, your majesty," Alder said, grinning as he allowed himself to be dragged back toward their home. The ex-champion made a mental note to become better at reprimanding Ghetsis when he'd been a bastard, but distantly he knew he'd probably never manage it.


End file.
